The
project of photographing all the El-Amarna letters housed at the Vorderasiatisches
Museum of Berlin (= VAM) was carried out as part of the Research Project
“Automation of the process of interpretation of Ancient Texts (Hermeneumatics)”
(PB 98-0674-C04-01), which is under the direction of Prof. Jesús-Luis
Cunchillos at the Hermeneumatics Laboratory (http://www.labherm.filol.csic.es)
of the Institute of Philology of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones
Científicas (= CSIC; Madrid, Spain). Dr. Joachim Marzahn, Head
Curator of the cuneiform tablets of the VAM (Berlin, Germany; http://www.smb.spk-berlin.de/vam)
and Dr. Juan-Pablo Vita (CSIC), current Deputy Director of the Institute
of Islamic and Near Eastern Studies (Instituto de Estudios Islámicos
y del Oriente Próximo; Zaragoza, Spain; web site under construction)
have taken part in this project.

In common agreement with Dr. Beate Salje, Director of the VAM, and with
J. Marzahn, a digital camera was used to take the photographs. The objective
was to build up a database of digital images of the El-Amarna letters
of the VAM and to make them available to all researchers via the Internet.
In 2001 J.-P. Vita was awarded a “Marina Bueno” grant (Consejo
Superior de Investigaciones Científicas – Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft)
to take the photographs in Berlin. The work was carried out in November
2001.

The technical construction of the web site that we are presenting was
undertaken by Joaquín Siabra (jsiabra@shapshu.filol.csic.es), Computer
Engineer at the Hermeneumatics Laboratory. J.-P. Vita (jpvita@ieiop.csic.es)
and J. Marzahn (vam@smb.spk-berlin.de) are responsible for its scientific
content.

The primary focus of the project is notice and comment on open access material relating to the ancient world, but I will also include other kinds of networked information as it comes available.

The ancient world is conceived here as it is at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University, my academic home at the time AWOL was launched. That is, from the Pillars of Hercules to the Pacific, from the beginnings of human habitation to the late antique / early Islamic period.

AWOL is the successor to Abzu, a guide to networked open access data relevant to the study and public presentation of the Ancient Near East and the Ancient Mediterranean world, founded at the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago in 1994. Together they represent the longest sustained effort to map the development of open digital scholarship in any discipline.